A journey by train with a nod to Annie Brassey

Tag Archives: Malaysia

Arriving in Borneo and focus shifts from Annie’s “A Voyage in the Sunbeam” (1878) to her posthumously published “Last Voyage” (1889). Borneo, and the caves therein, triggered the deterioration of her health after catching a fever. Annie had suffered with her health for a long time, particularly with malaria, although she also commented on her arm troubling her at times, thought to be due to a riding accident (Julian Porter, curator, conversations at Bexhill Museum). The caves in Borneo and the story of their role in Annie’s deteriorating health are the reason I included Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) in my itinerary. Transfixed by the existence of the caves and discovery that the birds’ nests she went in search of, now held at Bexhill Museum, committed me to this journey and planted the seeds for this residency (and ‘In Conversation with Annie‘).

Birds’ nest, courtesy of Bexhill Museum.

Annie’s interest with Gormatong and Madai caves was principally the habitation of the swiftlets within and their nest building. Prized for the soup, a particular delicacy in China, birds’ nests would be collected from within the caves and boiled down to make a glutenous liquid for serving. My interest was particularly piqued through Annie’s accounts detailed in “The Last Voyage” and the accompanying illustrations. It is described as quite an adventure to find said caves and the sense of far away lands are especially evident here.

Swamps and rainforest eventually precluded Annie from reaching Gormatong. Men were sent to find the caves and she accepted defeat only after three day treks proved the challenge of reaching them. She had to be satisfied with Madai. In contrast I had gone in hope of finding Madai caves and had to settle for finding Gormatong. They were a good deal more accessible than they were in 1887, although much of Northern Borneo is still a little challenging to navigate without your own transport (and all the correct permits). They did look similar to Annie’s photographs of Darvel Valley and Madai caves and I trust smelled the same (I was fortunate to be harbouring a cold by then). The floor covered in guano, the walls in cockroaches. There were men living inside guarding the valuable bounty and rickety wooden ladders lashed together as Annie describes. The main difference was not at the caves themselves but when I came to leave Borneo. Arriving at the airport for my flight to Australia, I spotted a shop window filled with clear perspex boxes, each filled with small white birds’ nests.

Looking back through my journal I read about the first things I noticed on reaching Malaysia. I was struck by the peculiarity of the familiar. English is widely spoken, electric sockets are the same as the UK. The wide motorways are soulless. Well manicured, it seemed everything had been tamed. Roads are lined with palm oil plantations. I felt more disconnected from the landscape with a desire to keep going.

Rifling through the museum’s archives, a fly whisk is found. Much later than Annie, it is from the mid 20th century. Made of coconut fibre I become fascinated with the knots of fibre at the base. These curious details become the focus of my drawing, frustratingly hard to keep track of which knot it was I was following.

Fly Whisk, Bexhill Museum (Louise Kenward, 2015)

Fly Whisk, Bexhill Museum (Louise Kenward, 2015)

Annie visited Georgetown and sailed along the Malacca Strait while travelling from Hong Kong to Ceylon (Sri Lanka). A Voyage in the Sunbeam gives the following account:

“While the doctor was on shore, we had been surrounded by boats bringing monkeys, birds, ratan and Malacca canes, fruit, rice, etc to sell, and as I did not care to go ashore, thinking there might be some bother about quarantine, we made bargains over the side of the yacht with the traders, the result being that seven monkeys, about fifty birds of sorts, and innumerable bundles of canes, were added to the stock on board. In the meantime Dr Simon had removed our invalid to the hospital.

Malacca looks exceedingly pretty from the sea. It is a regular Malay village, consisting of huts, built on piles close to the water, overshadowed by cocoa palm and other forms of tropical vegetation. Mount Ofia rises in the distance behind…By one o’clock we were again under way, and once more en route for Penang.” Tuesday, March 20th, A Voyage in the ‘Sunbeam’ Annie Brassey 1878.

Louise is at Bexhill Museum every Thursday, as Artist in Residence she is exploring her journey, with Annie, in the context of the collection in the archives. This is made possible thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund Grant.

‘A Trail of Breadcrumbs’ continued from Bali to Borneo, where I spent a little too long in Kota Kinabalu before exploring Northern Sabah. This was dominated by a tour of wildlife in rescue centres, albeit impressive organisations, it was a saddening fact that these were necessary. This was only emphasised by the roads being almost entirely lined by palm oil plantations and tour guides emphasising their value to the local economy. Tourism and palm oil are two of the biggest industries in this part of the world, it must be a delicate balance in PR.

There was the chance, however, to follow rivers and explore rainforest, to listen to the orchestra within and to see nature in the wild, orangutans, proboscis monkeys, snakes, elephants. All truly awesome experiences.

The highlight was of course to reach the Gormantong caves that Annie didn’t manage to (she was eventually persuaded she wouldn’t be able to access them). Alas a breadcrumb wasn’t left here, but one did find a home (albeit temporarily) on the coastline of one of the islands not far from Kota Kinabalu and where I had dived the previous week. This was a relaxing, calming pause in the fast paced itinerary and one worthy of marking.

North East of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) sit the Gormantong caves. One of the sites the rare and much prized bird’s nests of the apparently culinary delight from which bird’s nest soup is made from. Annie Brassey had been very keen to visit these at the time of her visit to what was then Northern British Borneo in 1878. She had been able to visit Madai caves where the swiftlets also nested. Reached more readily by boat, the Sunbeam docked at Darvel Bay from where there was quite some expedition still to reach their destination. The trip is documented well in Annie’s journal and in photographs and sketches made at the time. The nests she brought back from her trip are also still in tact and currently being looked after by the Bexhill Museum. What is also well documented is her desire to reach Gormantong. A good deal further from Darvel Bay, her journal gives the impression that she had already had someone attempt to discourage her from such a venture. Despite this Messers Wilson and Walker were sent to survey the area on foot. Crossing rivers, swamps, jungle and general inhospitable land, they finally reached the caves some days later. Little detail is given about the caves themselves, however, and what they found on their arrival, rather emphasis spent assuring Lady Brassey that it really would be an impossible journey for her. With great reluctance she relents and they move on. This did, however, make me curious to recreate an expedition. Not the travelling through rivers, swamps and jungle, I anticipated that some years later it would be a little easier to get to.

Planning as much as I could from the UK, with time restrictions and a less than clear answer from the internet, I arranged to join a tour that took me overland through Sabah, principally because it included a visit to Gormantong caves. With extra days to spare I still held out hope of reaching Madai but if nothing else, reaching the caves that eluded Annie so, and that she so wanted to visit would certainly be good enough.

Dressed in hard hat and head torch, long sleeves, trousers and fully covered shoes, I embark on my own expedition. A short walk through jungle, the orchestra was playing loudly and jubilantly. No one else was around and I wondered how much the environment had changed from the views that would of greeted Messers Wilson and Walker on their eventual arrival, and how much cursing dear Lady Brassey may have received. Long houses flank the entrance to the caves where equipment is stored for harvesting. A large cavernous opening awaits and I’m warned of cockroaches and falling guano. Nothing could deter me from going in. The central area is very tall with a small opening at the top allowing a small amount of light in, where I could see bats circling. On the ground lay a large mound of guano. Helpfully a walkway had been built around the perimeter so, unlike Annie and her group, I didn’t need to walk through too much goo. Blessed with a cold for this part of the trip my olfactory senses were blissfully hampered. The stench that kept others at bay did not bother me.

Gormantong Caves (Louise Kenward, 2014)

The atmosphere was cool and dark, taking in as much of the beauty of the caves, the light and the structure of the rock face I was completely absorbed and almost didn’t notice two people sitting in a small wooden hut constructed to one side at the base of the caves. Wardens of the caves, they are careful to protect their valuable bounty. As in awe of the structure and the cave as I was, I’m not sure I’d actually want to live there.

Reaching the sunshine again I’m a bit disappointed not to stay longer, but as with a tour I have to move on. Very very happy to have reached the caves and keen to report back to Annie.

Travelling through Peninsula Malaysia from Thailand I was struck by the attention paid to the roadside. Flowers and greenery which had been planted along the verges. It all looked very ‘looked after’ and ordered. The roads, mostly, were wide and free flowing, well maintained and a far cry from the ‘massage roads’ of Cambodia and Java.

The second thing I noticed was the palm trees. Vast stretches as far as the eye could see. Palm tree plantations. One of the most frightening sights I have seen. Almost for the entire journey the length of Malaysia, from Southern Thailand into Singapore, and from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan (Borneo) it was almost completely lined by these plantations. Having a little understanding of the dwindling rain forests and the implication on wildlife is one thing, but seeing it, not just on the peninsula but also throughout Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) it is truly upsetting. Eighty percent of the rain forest has been destroyed.

Palm oil plantation, Malaysia (Louise Kenward, 2014)

My attempt to learn more from the guide in Borneo proved a fairly fruitless task. He rattles off how the main industry in Sabah is palm oil and rubber, followed by petrol and tourism. Palm oil is big business. I am told that the palm oil plantations have ‘only’ been created in existing secondary forest, rubber plantations (replaced as rubber has lost its value). The difference being that palm oil plantations are silent.

Nothing can live in these deserts. There is no food or habitat for wildlife. Sepilok is home to three animal sanctuaries, Orang utan rescue (a UK charity), Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary and Sun Bear Conservation (recently opened). These are programmes developing in response to the dwindling forests. Orang utans have been rescued from palm oil plantations desperately looking for food. The work of the charity also includes educating locals how taking baby orang utans for pets is illegal, raising babies who have been taken as pets and teaching them how to be wild again. The balance of conservation and tourism is a fine one. Dedicated protected forests are the home of these organisations. During rehabilitation orang utans have their diet supplemented by the centre which provides food twice a day at platforms which visitors can view. We stand silently watching the ropes move and trees and branches sway, as orang utans make their way through the forest. There are only a handful likely to arrive, many living wild further afield or still not ready for this phase in the programme. One adult female orang utan arrives, swinging around the platform to assess the bounty and grabs a handful of bananas and starts to munch. A macaque monkey joins her and tries to wrestle them off her. She swings from one of the ropes and is joined by two more, one very small one just three or four years old. The dynamics and characters of each creature and their relationships with one another is fascinating to watch. The volunteer tells me a bit about them, how the smallest was rescued without her mother (they generally do not leave their mothers until they reach the age of about 10). She has taken to one of the adult females and more recently had started following a second as well. Watching her learn as she copied the older one, feeding and climbing. There are only 20,000 left in the wild, 200 are here in Sepilok. ‘Men of the Forest’ they share 96.4% of our genetics (particularly interesting in the wake of this recent National Geographic article).

Orang utan Rescue UK, Sepilok (Louise Kenward, 2014)

The previous day I had been fortunate enough to witness several orang utans in the wild. A boat trip along Kinabatangan River saw proboscis monkeys, orang utans, hornbills and elephants. These were rare sightings and magnificent to witness even if fleetingly and from some distance. There are apparently ropes across the river enabling orang utans to cross from one side to another, but again there are large portions of land dedicated to palm oil. Throughout my journey I have only once seen any information about palm oil, a WWF poster on a bus stop in Singapore warned of the wider impact that our consumption of palm oil is having. It’s used everywhere, in edible and non edible industries, cosmetics, soap, foods. Mc Donald’s is not surprisingly a major consumer. I pledge to read labels more carefully.

Headhunters and orang utans, hornbills and pygmy elephants. Borneo has it all. Jungles, proboscis monkeys, islands with white sandy beaches and incredible under water worlds. Coral reefs, turtles and multi coloured fish. Sun bears, reef sharks and houses on stilts. With 32 distinct ethnic groups, 55 languages and over 100 dialects, Malaysian Borneo, Sabah, is one of a kind. It can certainly be forgiven for not having modern shopping centres and efficient customer service. It would be a shame if it did.

Mount Kinabalu (Louise Kenward, 2014)

For all its quirks and oddities Sabah is all the more interesting for them. It is not slick and polished but muddled and disorganised. This makes it all the more intriguing, nothing is straight forward so exploring it can feel like a rare chance to see something special. Which you are. Many creatures here can only be found in Sabah. Jungle life, bird life, sea life. Lonely Planet describes it as what God created on his day off (a ‘mad scientist’ experiment). I think it’s probably what she came up with on saturday night after a couple of margaritas.

Evening out with the headhunters – Mari Mari Cultural Village (Louise Kenward, 2014)